EMORY'S
Candler School of Theology is one of four beneficiaries of a $166 million
trust from the estate of William I. and Lula E. Pitts, the parents of
long-time Candler patron Margaret Adger Pitts, whose death last July
at the age of 104 activated the bequest. The other recipients are Young
Harris College, the South Georgia Methodist Home for Children, and a
fund for retired pastors of the South Georgia Conference of the United
Methodist Church.

The total gift
to Candler is estimated at nearly $80 million, making it the largest
in the history of the theology school and third largest to the University,
surpassed only by a 1979 gift of $105 million from George W. and Robert
W. Woodruff and a $295 million gift from the Woodruff Foundation in
1996.

Margaret
Adger Pitts on the occasion of her one hundredth birthday celebration.

"This [bequest]
is very significant in the history of American philanthropy," Emory
President William M. Chace said.

Candler Dean R.
Kevin LaGree said the new funds will be used to create eighteen scholarships
for master of divinity students. Six are planned to begin this fall,
with six more added in each of the following two years. The scholarships
will be named for Margaret Pitts.

The Pitts family
has a long affiliation with Emory and Candler. The Pitts Theology Library
was named for the Waverly Hall, Georgia, family in 1974. A year later,
Margaret Pitts encouraged the W. I. H. and Lula E. Pitts Foundation
to support Emorys purchase of the 220,000-volume Hartford Seminary
Foundation library for $1.75 million, making the schools theology
library the second largest in North America. She also has supported
the librarys special collections holdings in Biblical studies,
English religious history, and hymnody, and has funded a major upgrade
in the librarys air-conditioning and fire-prevention systems.G.F